"Hop David" wrote in message
...


Joe Strout wrote:
In article ,
Hop David wrote:


If you achieve LEO with an empty fuel tank you're not halfway there.


Of course you are. You just don't have the fuel to go any farther. If
my car runs out of gas halfway to San Jose, is it not halfway to San
Jose?


Well, that's true enough.

So when we get to LEO all we need to do is stand by the road and stick
out our thumb.

Basically yes.

Imagine the shuttle bringing up a TLI for a lunar mission.

Let's give it 60,000 lbs mass (you can pick the fuels, payload, etc.) at
(we'll be generous) $300,000,000.

So you're paying $5000/lb

Now, let's say something like Roton had succeeded.

I don't recall mass to orbit, but some of the schemes out there are already
talking $1000/lb or less.

Let's give it a payload of 2,000lbs, but a cost of $1000/lb.

You have to fly 30x missions, but it's still cheaper.

So, each of those 30 missions, you fill up your orbital depot and sell to
the highest bidder.


Sorta like the fact that when I drive to Jan Jose, someone else has
prepositioned the gasoline for me.



Hop
http://clowder.net/hop/index.html